Luke 2:22-38
Memory Verse: Luke 2:30-32 - “For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
Song: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
One of the greatest joys I have experienced in this season of life is meeting my friends’ newborn babies. There is something so tender, sweet, and precious in beholding a little one. My heart becomes undone, and I am known to cry joyfully. I imagine Simeon experienced a similar yet exponential joy when he held Jesus in his arms.
Through Mary and Joseph’s obedience, they kept Moses’ Law and went to the temple 40 days after Jesus’ birth. The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would see the Messiah before he died. This might look like sheer coincidence, but Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and Simeon’s meeting at the temple was a moment divinely orchestrated by God. When Simeon takes Jesus up in his arms, this moment shows God’s sovereignty and faithfulness to fulfill His promise to Simeon and His greater promise to us.
As Simeon cradles Jesus in his arms, he was holding the consolation of Israel, the One that he and so many others before him had been waiting for. Consolation is the comfort we receive from someone during loss and disappointment. In the garden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s word, there was a great loss and disappointment as sin entered the world. The punishment for our sins was death and eternal separation from God. No amount of animal sacrifices, performance, or self-punishment could save us. There was nothing we could do to restore our relationship with God and reverse the curse of death, but God promised us He would send us the One who could. Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He became the perfect, sacrificial Lamb who bore the punishment of our sins, saved us from death through His death, and restored our relationship with God. We receive in Jesus the comfort and joy of our salvation.
Overjoyed with God faithfully fulfilling His promise to Simeon that he would see the Lord’s Christ, Simeon breaks out into a song of praise in verses 29-32:
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people, Israel.
Simeon recognized a beautiful and key truth about Jesus. Swaddled and perhaps sleeping, Simeon was looking at the face of the One who was not just the consolation of salvation for God’s chosen people, but He was to be a light for revelation to the Gentiles. Jesus came for everyone, every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Jesus offers the comfort of a promise of an everlasting joy to come. One day, death and sorrow will be no more (Revelation 21: 4-5). Everything that sin has marred will be restored. Our joy will be full and complete when Jesus returns, and we step into eternity with Him.
We have joy now in our salvation being secured through Jesus, which is absolutely a joy worth celebrating! And because of the joy of salvation, we also have a future joy to come when Jesus returns. Simeon waited nearly his entire life for this moment to behold Jesus. His waiting was not in vain, and neither is ours as we wait for the promise of Jesus’ return. No matter how long we may wait, God is faithful to keep His promise of everlasting joy in Jesus to come.
